Yeah, I tend to hit 100 by the ten chapter mark lately...that's on FFN though, no-one really reads on here.

I think it has something to do with the move. I used to get more comments over here and almost none at FFN. Now it is the other way around. I think a lot of readers went over to FFN when this site went down and they are staying over there. I do admit it is easier to read stories over there when you don't have to skim through all the reader comments.

@Jedi_Lover
Well, I think a lot of the problem is my own doing or incidental. It's my first full-blown fic (I did write a one-shot on the temp boards that got a couple replies, which was nice), and it's in my sig. I've only been at it a few weeks, but I was pretty sure that after the first few days or weeks I would have a readership by now. Granted, it's not Star Wars, and I think part of the problem is the premise is based on something from another website (even though I summarized in my thread). It's also a different format: choose-your-adventure. Maybe it's just too different for people to get into. I hadn't counted on that, but I should've.

It's at heart a Harry Potter story, but with some crossover elements with The Hunger Games. I'm actually very satisfied with how it's turned out from a writing standpoint, plot-wise and character-wise. I just thought there'd be people joining me in the journey, generating discussion, asking questions, etc.

Maybe I should've waited until I was better known to try something like that, and started off with a straight Star Wars EU fic or something. (I've had one bouncing around in my brain for a few years actually.)

But like you said later, maybe it has to do with the move. Maybe I'd have better luck at FF.N

Ideally my fic is going to (eventually) be posted on its native website, thepottergames.com, but for now there are technical difficulties I've come across, hence why I'm posting it both here and on a Harry Potter forum I frequent (and it's been nearly as ignored there as here).

@Valairy Scot
Yeah, I know what you mean and I've seen that too. I do notice my reader count is going up steadily, but I sometimes think that's someone clicking on the thread, getting bored, then clicking away to something else.

Yeah, I tend to hit 100 by the ten chapter mark lately...that's on FFN though, no-one really reads on here.

I think it has something to do with the move. I used to get more comments over here and almost none at FFN. Now it is the other way around. I think a lot of readers went over to FFN when this site went down and they are staying over there. I do admit it is easier to read stories over there when you don't have to skim through all the reader comments.

I prefer here for readers comments also. I like how readers can interact with each other along with interacting with the writer. I was just saying I think many of the readers went over to FFN during the move and I don't think they have returned.

I am basing that purely off views and comments on my stories. My last fanfic received 1379 views on TFN and 128 replies (which include my posts). Over at FFN the same story received 20,360 views and 170 reviews.

Prior to the move I rarely received any reviews over at FFN, so I think many readers went over there. I hope they come back here.

I've heard that you (general you) tend to get a lot of trolls and negative reviews at FF.N. How true is that?

Every once in a while I get some flamer telling me I'm writing somebody wrong. There are a couple things that are stopping the Trolls. FFN now allows a writer to review a reader comment before allowing it to go public. Also anonymous reviews can be deleted by the writer.

Most people post in both places. They write a story here for mainly the camaraderie, reviews and reader/reader or reader/writer interaction. We can have discussions here where as at FFN it is just a review. Although as a writer I can reply to the reviewer and it will go into a PM system. So I do talk to a lot of reviewers via their PM system.

I post over at FFN mainly as an archive. I can keep all my stories in one place and a reader can read the story without having skip over reader comments.

I don't find the place scary, but I think TFN is a much friendlier atmosphere. I don't think I have ever seen a flaming review here. Most of the time people just don't review. If they can't say anything nice they don't say anything at all.

I went over to your story and to be honest I am a bit confused, but I don't play adventure games. And according to my sons I am old and am completely lacking in knowledge as to what kids are into today. Of course they didn't complain when I bought them the new Call of Duty video game. I guess I was on the mark there.

Anyway, I don't think the lack of reviews is a comment on your writing skills, simply people are not familiar with the Choose your Adventure writing.

one of my pet peeves would be OOCness. like i would like see writers take the time to write a story where as I'm reading it i could see either Luke Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi (if i'm reading a prequel story) doing that particular action or saying a particular line.

Every once in a while I get some flamer telling me I'm writing somebody wrong. There are a couple things that are stopping the Trolls. FFN now allows a writer to review a reader comment before allowing it to go public. Also anonymous reviews can be deleted by the writer.

Most people post in both places. They write a story here for mainly the camaraderie, reviews and reader/reader or reader/writer interaction. We can have discussions here where as at FFN it is just a review. Although as a writer I can reply to the reviewer and it will go into a PM system. So I do talk to a lot of reviewers via their PM system.

I post over at FFN mainly as an archive. I can keep all my stories in one place and a reader can read the story without having skip over reader comments.

I don't find the place scary, but I think TFN is a much friendlier atmosphere. I don't think I have ever seen a flaming review here. Most of the time people just don't review. If they can't say anything nice they don't say anything at all.

I went over to your story and to be honest I am a bit confused, but I don't play adventure games. And according to my sons I am old and am completely lacking in knowledge as to what kids are into today. Of course they didn't complain when I bought them the new Call of Duty video game. I guess I was on the mark there.

Anyway, I don't think the lack of reviews is a comment on your writing skills, simply people are not familiar with the Choose your Adventure writing.

FF.N sounds like a more interesting place than I've heard. (To be honest, I've hardly ever gone there myself.) I might look into posting some stuff on there!

Thanks for your candid feedback. Anyway, I think I was misleading--my fic isn't a game! It's basically just a choose-your-adventure story, not a game. It's like a regular fanfic, except in 2nd person. And at the end of each chapter break (or scene), there will be a choice. The next post shows what happens if the character makes a wrong decision. It's sort of an interesting study to see ramifications, stakes, that sort of thing.

Again, I would've gone with a more conventional format, but this fic was originally intended for a choose-your-adventure style website. I only got the idea to start posting it here relatively recently.

But if people think it's confusing, that's no one's fault but my own. I'll let this Quest 1 play out (comprised of 12 scenes), and if I can't get a readership after that, I think I'm going to abort the fic, as far as this forum goes. (I still intend to post it in its entirety on its designated website once the technical details are worked out over there.)

one of my pet peeves would be OOCness. like i would like see writers take the time to write a story where as I'm reading it i could see either Luke Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi (if i'm reading a prequel story) doing that particular action or saying a particular line.

Yes, this! In fact, forget fanfic, I can't tolerate OOC characters in the EU either. It's seriously the thing that aggravates me the most and will cause me immediately stop reading a fanfic in most cases.

That said, I'm going to be a slight devil's advocate and say that if you can put a character into a situation where they act in a way they wouldn't normally, and you convincingly portray the circumstances that lead to them doing so, it can be very powerful.

Take a character who's always cool, calm, and collected, even in life-threatening situations, while everyone else is freaking out. If you can concoct a scenario that causes such a character to become unhinged and it's actually plausible, you know you've got something good. But it's very risky! And even when I attempt it, I normally don't keep the character there but eventually bring them back to where they were, perhaps a tad wiser for the journey.

If you'll forgive me the soapbox, this is my problem with the SW:LotF series. I think it could've been an incredible moment in Jacen Solo's character journey to take that path down the dark side, to betray his entire family and everything he's ever stood for, to undo all his compassionate heroism from the Vong War. I'm actually okay with that. The trouble is, the authors did not do so convincingly, and they kept him there, not as part of a learning experience, but just to make him the next stock villain and kill him off as such.

Never has a story with such potential proved to be such a disappointment!

New peeve....reading a great fic, when it suddenly throws something stupid out of left-field that makes you not want to read it anymore. In this case...a great Harry Potter fic, until it started to throw out some of the neo-Pagan osik that made my little brother go crazy (and yes, he is completely off his rocker from this stuff). I nearly broke my computer screen when I started reading that, and it takes a lot to make me lose my temper like that.

Yeah, Teen Titans suffers from that occasionally, given that Raven is a "witch", and I've run across it in a few other places I can't quite think of at the moment. I'm willing to sit through that kind of thing if I'm looking up something for research purposes, but if I see it when I just want to sit down and read a nice story it really annoys me. Especially in cases where there's already an established form of magic that works differently--Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings in particular--because then there's really no excuse for throwing it in there.

I prefer here for readers comments also. I like how readers can interact with each other along with interacting with the writer. I was just saying I think many of the readers went over to FFN during the move and I don't think they have returned.

I am basing that purely off views and comments on my stories. My last fanfic received 1379 views on TFN and 128 replies (which include my posts). Over at FFN the same story received 20,360 views and 170 reviews.

Prior to the move I rarely received any reviews over at FFN, so I think many readers went over there. I hope they come back here.

That's very interesting - I was wondering about the length of the TFN renovation and its effects. The Star Wars: Clone Wars section in ffn's 'cartoon' category has some terrific stories, along with the general SW category in 'movies'. It does seem that the Disney sale and forthcoming films will generate interest in SW and all sites will benefit eventually. Yay!

@Rew my son is taking a writing class in junior high school this semester. He sent me the story via a link. So I get to the end of the first page and it asks me, "do you go into the house or wait for back up?". At that point I realized it was that type of interactive story you are writing. So, because of you I knew what was going on. He did it as a group project with girl and boy writers...so the story had a nice mix of dolls, ponies, zombies and guns.

Just a minor nitpick, and it doesn't necessarily bother me, but I do find it baffling. More than a few times, I've seen people ask for help on a story, and when help is offered, they reveal that they have a paragraph written and don't know where to go next. No plot, no complete scene, nothing. To me, it's like they're asking for someone else to do the plotting for them. And more than once, I've written up an entire story outline on the fly, based on that single paragraph and the author's character descriptions.

I'm not going to criticize writing by the seat of your pants, as I do that all the time. But, it does help to have at least a smidgen of a plot in mind. It also bugs me a bit that once I had given away a newly-hatched plot bunny (mine hatch from eggs, apparently), that I can't use it.

Just a minor nitpick, and it doesn't necessarily bother me, but I do find it baffling. More than a few times, I've seen people ask for help on a story, and when help is offered, they reveal that they have a paragraph written and don't know where to go next. No plot, no complete scene, nothing. To me, it's like they're asking for someone else to do the plotting for them. And more than once, I've written up an entire story outline on the fly, based on that single paragraph and the author's character descriptions.

I'm not going to criticize writing by the seat of your pants, as I do that all the time. But, it does help to have at least a smidgen of a plot in mind. It also bugs me a bit that once I had given away a newly-hatched plot bunny (mine hatch from eggs, apparently), that I can't use it.

given away a newly-hatched Yes, to this. And you want to help the beginner, but they need to step out, too!

I'm peeved that an author took a short fic whose premise I gave away freely to any adopters/continuers, and did excellently with it for a short time, while not acknowledging or crediting my initial effort with even a private PM. And then dropped it for a few years! Who knows whether it'll be completed ...

I would like to BEG to excess for help (but restrain myself) simply because I cannot plot worth a darn. Trouble is, I have these half-baked elements which are perennial stumbling blocks for those few willing to weigh in with advice - but thanks those of you who have attempted in the past.

@pronker: I assume the author in your case knows the bunny came from you? And just how developed was the bunny, anyway: something as brief as Obi-Wan gets appointed to the Council, or a more developed idea? I have a plot point in an upcoming fic (already drafted and reviewed by a fellow author) that is disturbingly like a scene in another recent fanfic - pure coincidence I know for an absolute fact but one that terrifies me for fear of future comparisons.

My point, was this story from your premise or just disturbingly close?

I would like to BEG to excess for help (but restrain myself) simply because I cannot plot worth a darn. Trouble is, I have these half-baked elements which are perennial stumbling blocks for those few willing to weigh in with advice - but thanks those of you who have attempted in the past.

We had chatted in the past, and the dialogue was directly taken from it -- it's a peeve. Glad this thread is here to gripe!